Dave's Titanium Rant: War Within Prowl
Dave Van Domelen
Prowl (War Within)
Grimlock (War Within)
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/6Ti9
When Titanium Transformers got cancelled, there were two new molds ready
to go, as well as several in late prototype form. Prowl and Grimlock were
the new molds, and were initially intended to ship with Soundblaster (black
Soundwave G1 recolor) and Primal Prime (Optimal Optimus recolor), but that
didn't happen.
However, Toys R Us has taken the two new molds as store exclusives,
bumping the price to $19.99, so at least we have a shot at them. The "local"
TRU (a hour's drive away) didn't have 'em out yet when I went in early
September, and someone had bought all the Grimlocks by the time I visited
again in early October, so I guess I have to hope these eventually become
available online (TRU's website has Grimlock listed as "temporarily
unavailable"). I refuse to pay eBay markup on top of the $5 bump in price,
though.
CAPSULES
Prowl: At the original Titanium 6" pricepoint I'd be fairly enthusiastic
about recommending this one. It's well-engineered for a Titanium, and while
the robot mode looks a bit wonky, it has a decent transformation and nice
vehicle mode. But the 33% boost in price is significant, and I can only
mildly recommend this. $19.99 at TRU.
Grimlock: Don't have it yet, if ever.
RANT
Packaging: Same as previous waves, but with an "only at TOYS R US"
sticker on the front window. Prowl's co-sell is Soundblaster (Soundwave in
black and silver with clear red chest), Grimlock's is Primal Prime (red and
blue version of Optimal Optimus).
AUTOBOT: PROWL
Unique feature: Highly advanced logic circuits.
The most single-minded of all the AUTOBOTS, PROWL is sometimes referred
to as "the commander's SHARKTICON" because of the way he seizes a problem and
refuses to let go until it is solved. He rivals even SHOCKWAVE in the fields
of cryptography, logistics and strategic planning. In fact, the two of them
will occasionally engage in complex shadow wars that rage just beneath the
surface of an ongoing battle, logical games designed more to frustrate and
confound each other than secure victory for their sides.
PROWL believes that there is a reason for all things. He struggles to
understand the perspective even of his enemies, believing that if he can
discern the logical underpinnings of the DECEPTICON cause, he can devise a
strategy for final victory. Though he is often torn by emotions that
conflict with his logic, he has difficulty understanding how others can be so
ruled by feeling and instinct. He believes that all creatures behave
according to some complex arithmetic, and that if he could only work it out,
he could bring peace to the universe.
STR 7 INT 9 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 9 COUR 9 FRB 4 SKL 9 Avg 7.875
I suspect it's more complex than mere arithmetic. :)
Three twist-ties go through the card back for the chest and waist, but
four more for the limbs go through only the blister. However, the blister is
only held in by folded tabs, no tape to cut. A single rubber band holds the
shoulder cannons to the blister.
Main Weakness: Kinda oddly proportioned robot mode. No glaring
engineering flaws, though.
Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, 6.25" (16cm) at the shoulder
missile pods. The pods stick way up on black struts rather than flanking the
head as in G1 "Earth mode" Prowl or Classics Prowl. Some consider this a
major flaw, but I kinda like it. It makes more sense to get the backblast of
your own missiles away from your face, plus he can hide behind barriers and
pop up the launchers to fire.
On the other hand, his 4.75" (12cm) shoulderspan is a bit extreme, and
he can't even get his hands close to each other. I guess he'd sympathize
with a T.rex. Also, while the launchers are supposed to peg into slots on
the back of the torso, it's rather loose, and I *do* count that as a flaw.
And he has a big gap in his chest in front of his face, although I'll
grudgingly admit that there's no real way to have filled it without totally
changing the transformation of the torso. If you flip the head down and
nothing else, though, it makes a decent police drone.
Still, despite the proportion issues, the distribution of metal is
good. Only a little in the chest, and a lot in the boots, so it's pretty
stable.
The central chest and three facings of the boots are made of metal. The
upper arms, forearms, fists, hip ratchets and missile pod cores (the parts
painted silver) are cool gray plastic. I think the head is made of white
plastic, it has a different UV glow than the white paint, but I can't take it
apart to check. I did take the missile pods apart. :) The shin armor is
clear blue plastic. Everything else, including the instep sides of the boots
and the toes, is black plastic. The wings on the missile pods are a softer
black plastic.
The front and top of the "right torso" and "left torso" chest bits are
painted mostly white, as are most of the wings on the missile pods and the
center of the abdomen. There's also white stripes on the shoulders and
forearms. The metal bits are mainly painted black, and the underside half of
each forearm is also mostly black. There's lots of silver bits, including
the grille, headlights, missile pod cores, face, shoulder lights, abdomen
flanks, belt bits, piping on the shins, details behind the clear blue
shinplates. There's alternating red and blue accents in several places
(abdomen, shoulders, chest, wingtips, some stuff on the back mainly meant for
vehicle mode). The helmet antennae and the missile tips are also red, while
the eyes are blue. The center of the helmet crest is golden yellow. A
silver and black five pointed star at a slant and superimposed on an oval
with a red Autobot symbol in the center is on the left chest.
The head turns smoothly, if not easily. The waist is on an 8 point
ratchet. The shoulders are universal, with 8 point soft ratchet for the
swivel and a smooth hinge. There's no upper arm swivel, but the entire
shoulder chunk can swing backwards on a transformation hinge to give a bit
more range of arm motion. Smooth hinge elbow, smooth swivel just below the
elbow. The closed fist (which has no peg hole) can wiggle a little. The
hips are universal ratchets, with 12 point ratchet out to the sides (3 clicks
to horizontal, where it stops) and 8 point ratchet forward and back. The
mid-thigh swivels are 8 point ratchets. The knees are hinged to have two
stable positions: straight and bent 45 degrees from straight. The toes move,
but the feet are so huge that it really doesn't make a difference.
Undocumented feature: you can flip the shoulder weapons under and
forward on their struts and then position the arms so that the weapons look
like pistols instead. http://www.dvandom.com/images/wwiprowlpistol.JPG
Transformation: Legs telescope shorter, snap together, waist twists 180
degrees. Head folds down into chest, chest lifts up. The missile pod struts
peg onto the legs, the torso side pieces pull away from the center and the
arms just sort of straighten and get shorter. The toes point down to reveal
more red and blue flashers.
An odd combination of complexity and simplicity, really. I wish they'd
made it so that the forearms could peg onto something, though. And having
the missile point at the fists is one of those "Head-Punch Luthor" design
decisions.
Vehicle Mode: Well, this is a War Within toy, so it's not really
anything. Sort of a hovercar thing with outrigger pods (i.e. the robot
arms). 5" (13cm) long, 5.75" (14.5cm) wingspan, with the main body being
3.75" (9.5cm) wide.
The outrigger struts are black plastic, everything else was visible
already in robot mode A lot of the silver parts join up in this mode. For
instance, the silver pods on the shoulders connect up to the ones on the
torso sides. The shinguards connect into a single clear blue canopy, and
additional red and blue flashers are visible behind it on pieces of the toes
that aren't visible in robot mode. At the very rear are molded thrust fans
painted silver, plus red-painted tail lights. It's worth noting that now all
blue details are to the starboard side and all red details to the port side
(there's two places where there's red and blue right next to each other on
just one side of the centerline, but they still obey that rule relative to
each other). In robot mode it's a little mixed up.
No real articulation. The missile pods can swivel up to fire over the
outrigger pods, although the wings are attached to them so Prowl would end up
nosing down. All the metal pieces are on the centerline, symmetrically
arranged, so it's reasonably stable. The exposed missile pod struts on the
sides of the center bit are a bit ugly, though.
Overall: Somewhat oddly proportioned robot mode, decent transformation
for a Titanium, mostly nice-looking vehicle mode that tends to shoot itself.
Not really worth $20, though.
AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK
Unique Feature:
To be added later, maybe.
STR INT SPD END RNK COUR FRB SKL Avg
Major Weakness: To be added.
Robot Mode: TBA.
Transformation: TBA.
Vehicle Mode: TBA.
Overall:
Dave Van Domelen, never did see Ultra Magnus in stores, even after
trading for one.
Chad Rushing
>
> However, Toys R Us has taken the two new molds as store exclusives,
> bumping the price to $19.99, so at least we have a shot at them. The "local"
> TRU (a hour's drive away) didn't have 'em out yet when I went in early
> September, and someone had bought all the Grimlocks by the time I visited
> again in early October, so I guess I have to hope these eventually become
> available online (TRU's website has Grimlock listed as "temporarily
> unavailable"). I refuse to pay eBay markup on top of the $5 bump in price,
> though.
My local TRU is being relocated much further from where I live, so it
is in storewide clearance mode with no new stock being added. I tried
another TRU about a week ago with no luck. Here's hoping that Prowl
and Grimlock show up around here eventually as my Ti-6" collection
needs closure. :-)
- Chad
Silvershot
I was just at a TRU in Porter Rance, CA . . they had about 4 or 5 of
each, but I haven't ben a big enough fan of the Titaniums to drop $20
bucks on them. I may have if Soundblaster was produced, but I think
I'll have to keep passing on these guys.
-Silvershot
Victoryleo
each. 1 to open 2nd to keep misb.
WW Prowl is one of those toys that looks better in person. all the
internet pics did this bot a in-justice. the toy's got so much
detail. the amount of diecast metal on this toy is so a lot.
WW Grimlock looks amazing. so powerful looking in both modes.
ANOTHER RANT: Damn I really want those 4 cancelled 6 inch titanium TF
molds of Shockwave,Cosmos,Arcee & WW Bumblebee made. I don't think
well ever get a super poseable shockwave that matched his 1984 cartoon/
toy & comic book designs ever like the cancelled titanium 6 inch
version.